M&A Recap: Facebook’s Opera, FedEx LOVES Brazil

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) acquires Brazilian company Rapidão Cometa, in a move that the former claims will reinforce its presence in Latin America. The transaction, the financial details of which were not reported, is forecast to close in the third quarter.

Defense equipment manufacturer Teledyne (NYSE:TDY) purchases LeCroy (NASDAQ:LCRY) for $240.5 million. This represents an offer of $14.30 per share, which is a premium of more than 56 percent over the latter’s close on Friday. The buyer says that “LeCroy will broaden our portfolio of analytical instrumentation businesses”.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), with its IPO now behind it (sort of), is looking for acquisitions. One of its targets is Opera Software, and observers calculate that such a purchase might require more than $1 billion, since interest from Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and other suitors might spark a bidding war. Meanwhile, Opera’s shares have soared 20 percent on the Oslo exchange in reaction, which gives it a market cap of 4.9 billion Norwegian krones, or $816 million. In addition, chatter has it that FB might be eyeing facial-recognition tech developer Face.com, along with its valuable domain name. Face.com has created a popular Facebook app called Photo Tagger, plus releasing an iOS app. The price for that purchase could be between $80 million and $100 million, sources say.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) divests its 50 percent investment in the Crixas gold mine in Brazil to AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) for $220 milion in cash. The seller calls Crixas a “non-operated, non-core asset”, and its sale is “consistent with our strategy of portfolio optimization.”.